30 BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
from several causes, but the chief are from its not being in¬ 
cluded in our education when students, and from not having 
the subject brought sufficiently directly under notice from 
any other source. In endeavouring in some measure to 
remedy the latter evil, and to lay before the profession some 
remarks upon botany in its applications to veterinary science, 
I feel that I have set myself no ordinary task, inasmuch as I 
have many difficulties to contend with, not the least of them 
being my own inability to do justice to the subject, so as to 
make it either instructive or interesting to a class of readers, 
the great majority of whom are perhaps unacquainted with 
its simplest outlines. I know there are some few who will 
altogether condemn the introduction of this subject as being 
of no practical value, and as calculated rather to bewilder 
and obscure what scientific knowledge the veterinary surgeon 
is already possessed of. To such I would say, Dream on ! For 
dreams they are—would that they were as fleeting—although 
no power of mine can awaken you from so mistaken a sleep. 
But to those who watch what is going on around them, who 
see every day, nay almost every hour bring forth some effort 
of the mind which startles and astonishes the world; when 
men of all ranks and all professions are being borne with 
such rapid and almost resistless force along the stream of 
advancement, surely we of all others cannot afford to remain 
as it were waterlogged on its course. No, rather let us rally 
round the common standard of our profession, and by one¬ 
ness of sentiment, by unity of mind and action, by steady 
uncompromising exertions and self-sacrifices of time and 
effort, promote the general good, and the day will not be far 
distant when we shall occupy our true position among the 
leading professions of the land. 
Botany in its applications to veterinary science is both 
practically and scientifically useful. When we perceive the 
great advancement made in the science of agriculture by the 
application of chemistry to it, and see plants forced by 
artificial stimulants from their ordinary state of nature to 
one of increased growth, assimilation and development, it 
becomes of deep import to ascertain what effects these 
changes in the vegetable may have upon animal life. Plants 
have a very delicate and perfect organization ; they are very 
sensitive and susceptible of extraneous influences as regards 
both health and disease, and it becomes a question not only 
of scientific interest, but of national importance to ascertain 
what are the results of this interference with the natural 
habits of the plant. And upon whom does this duty devolve? 
Surely it belongs to those whose special calling it is to 
